Game designers: take note.

Many folks are fully aware that trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and the Pokémon Trading Card Game can often be ridiculously expensive–almost prohibitively so. Faced with a desire to play a game but unable to afford it, two kids (now adults) created their own trading card game. “Creature Cards,” developed by Reddit user one23abc and their brother, borrows a lot from the aforementioned games, and frankly, it’s pretty gosh darn neat.

Reddit user one23abc explained the rules in a comment reply to the /r/pics thread featuring their game. They write:

There are 3 types of card: creature, evolution and item. At the start of the game you start with 3 creatures, 1 evolution and 1 item. Play is divided into player turns. You can think of each turn as having five of phases; draw, item, summon, attack (or evolve), then end. Most items can only be played during the ‘item’ phase. However some items can be played on your opponents turn under certain conditions (think of them as ‘trap’ cards from yugioh)

If you do not have enough MP to attack, you have to ‘struggle’ (roll a die). 1 or 6 = 20 damage 2 or 5 = 10 damage 3 = 10 damage to yourself 4 = reroll

If your creature has an evolution, you may chose to evolve instead of attack. A creature has to attack at least one time before it may evolve to the next stage (creatures typically come in 1 stagers, 2 stagers, or 3 stagers, with the latter being the least common but most powerful in a deck)